Millersburg group walks to school to celebrate grant funding promoting safety and health
A number of Millersburg students, parents and educators put their best feet forward Thursday, Oct. 29, participating in a National Safe Routes to School walk to celebrate a grant which will help promote safety around Millersburg Elementary.The Walk to School events are part of the National Safe Routes to School program through the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). The goals of the program are to promote the benefits of walking and biking to school. The benefits of children walking/biking to school include enhancing the health of the students by getting daily activity, improving air quality and the environment by not having so many cars on the road everyday, promoting safer routes for walking and biking and driver awareness.
The group of walkers participating in the Millersburg walk, students, parents and faculty members, from the courthouse lawn to the elementary school, also included West Holmes superintendent Kris Pipes-Perone, Millersburg Elementary principal Tim Wigton and Lori Robson, West Holmes School District’s director of federal programs/truancy officer.
Robson, who helped secure the grant, said, “This helps promote safety and health on a number of levels. The grant from ODOT was for $1,000. The money (from the grant) was earmarked to encourage students to walk and bike to school, as well as to raise safety awareness for students and community drivers of students walking and biking to school. We used the grant money to provide materials for our Millersburg Safety Patrol students who volunteer as our crossing guards each day and secure the safe crossing of our students walking and biking to Millersburg Elementary. We also promoted walking and biking to school through a raffle.”
A boys and girls bike was purchased with part of the grant, and will serve as the grand prizes for the raffle. Every day a student walks to school, they earn a ticket which goes into the raffle. Students who ride the bus to school may earn tickets by walking at noon or at recess.
“One of the nice things about the grant is that it gets kids into an exercise mode and gets them up and moving,” said Wigton. “We’ve even encouraged parents to park down at the church parking lot and have their kids walk up the hill to the school in the morning.” By doing so, youth can earn a ticket, which are handed out by the crossing guards near the school.
Students at Millersburg Elementary were awarded tickets for each day they walked to school during the week of Oct. 26-30. At the conclusion of the week tickets were drawn for two bicycles as well as other safety equipment, including bike helmets.
“We want to do anything we can to promote health and safety, and especially things that keep our students safe while getting to school,” said Wigton.
In addition to the raffle and the effort to get kids to be more active, some of the grant money was invested in purchasing new glowing orange crossing guard vests and safety flags, something Wigton said the school has been in need of for some time.
“Our crossing guards used to just have flags and belts,” said Wigton.